Though The Stars Walk Backward
by TacticianZephine
Summary: At midnight, the princess of the moon receives a visit from an old friend that shakes her from romantic musings.


Midnight over Canterlot. A clear night, her moon full and bright as her sister's daytime sun, and her stars shimmering against the black velvet sky. The streets below much more empty than during the day, but with the occasional form appearing on the cobbled walkways, some ambling slowly in pairs and talking in hushed tones to one another, some lone figures scurrying through the streets, some in loud, rowdy groups. The shimmering miasma dreams of the sleeping citizens of the royal city floating in clouds high above the roofs of the houses, all laid out for the her to see.

Princess Luna stood alone in the pale moonlight washing over her balcony, her dark coat in striking constrast to the white marble walls of the Canterlot palace, as the obsidian of her whole tower was. She remained still as a stone, with only an occasional crossing to the crystal spheres that lined the walls beside the doors, to which she would touch her horn to them to see the other areas of the kingdom, and the dreams of the citizens, within the crystal.

Halfway back to her post at the edge of the balcony, behind the silver railing put up by her elder sister as a precaution against the fainting spells that had come after her return to this world, she paused. Her eyes turned skyward, tracing over the pictures she'd set in the stars all those years ago. The unicorn, the pegasus, the Earth pony... all still there, after all these years, immortalized in glimmering stars.

_"I want every pony to look up there and see a picture of themselves!"_ her younger self had declared proudly to her elder sister's back and flanks as Celestia read over some scrap of parchment that, as far as Luna knew, couldn't be more important than her constellations. Her lovely constellations, pictures she'd drawn in the stars for the ponies who looked to her and her sister for guidance and protection, something beautiful in return.

All was quiet, peaceful. The very thing which had once driven her mad about the way the ponies below treated the night. Now, she saw that the night was just as beloved as the day her sister brought to the ponies below. Moonlight was the best light for love, she often heard ponies saying. Nighttime was a time for candlelight and closeness, intimate time spent together that just wasn't possible in the daylight. Moonlit walks were seen as romantic, as was anything done by candlelight.

Oh, now there she went again, letting something as trivial and silly as romance preoccupy her mind. Her stupid, fillyish fantasies of finding The One had disappeared long ago, during her exile, when, after the initial shock of being banished had broken, she realized that she had already betrayed the one she had cared so deeply for, not the other way around, as she had once believed... as she was once _led_ to believe, and could never take that back.

"Feeling sentimental again? Perhaps even _moony_?"

Luna looked over her shoulder at the visitor lounging on her railing, examining his talon and laughing heartily at his own joke. She turned her gaze forward again, eyes tracking over the sleeping landscape, before she spoke to him. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"A quiet night, I take it? Pity. I'd be happy to liven it up for you." The scratch of dragon scales against the obsidian, then the clap of a hoof as her visitor stood up. "You know, I've always thought you looked _ravishing_ in the moonlight. It's always suited you so very well. In fact, I can think of a certain pegasus who would agree with me."

"That is ridiculous, inappropriate, and, furthermore, not an answer to my question, Discord. You have no business here. Do you not stay in Ponyville now, with young Fluttershy? Why have you come here?"

Discord laid the back of his paw dramatically against his forehead, clutching his chest over his heart with his talon. "You _wound_ me, your Highness! Is that any way to talk to an old friend? I come to visit for the first time since they release me from my stone prison-a prison that _you_ assisted in placing me in, need I remind you-"

"I grow tired of your prattling, either you tell me what business you have with me, or I alert the palace guards and we turn you back to stone."

"As _fun_ as that would be, the Elements of Harmony have been returned to their original source, so that would be quite impossible." Discord settled himself on the railing again. "Isn't popping in to catch up what old friends are _supposed_ to do?"

Luna turned away from him, crossing the balcony to her dream spheres and touching her horn to one of them. "You still consider us friends, Discord? Even after all that has happened?"

"I can't hold it against you for following Celestia's orders, now can I? _She_ was the one who decided to lock me away, isn't she?"

"... it was a combined decision. When we imprisoned you, you were not the little lost draconequus who I befriended in the Everfree Forest; you had been twisted into the wicked fiend you are today-"

"Such harsh words from such a pretty voice, my dear." A ping of a teleportation spell, and the claws of Discord's talon were resting lightly atop her head. "Don't you think it's high time we rekindle that friendship of ours, you know, as kindred spirits, and all that nonsense..."

Luna ducked out from beneath his talon, rearing to turn and face the draconequus, her head down and forward though her eyes were up to watch his movements. Combative positioning often seen in unicorn colts, quite unbecoming of a princess of Equestria. "Do not make me laugh. Kindred spirits? In what way?"

"Both imprisoned unjustly by your older sister, of course. I suppose the only difference is that you had other friends to lose while you were gone, while I merely lost your friendship."

The princess was quiet, raising her head and crossing back to the railing. "... I was not unjustly exiled, Discord. I was sent away so that I would not harm anyone."

"Oh, the _greater good_! Is _that_ how she justifies forcing others to be _frozen_ in time while she lived on?" Discord tutted, shaking his head. "Well, she always was an advocate of the 'conceal, don't feel' approach to dealing with problems. Concealing a threat to her precious kingdom all the way on the moon is _just_ like her-"

"ENOUGH!"

A jet of light burned against the side of his antler, and Discord rather mockingly placed his paw over his heart. "Did I touch a nerve? I'm _so_ sorry, I didn't mean to tarnish your sister's good name."

Luna had turned her back to the chaos-bringer, breathing heavily and squeezing her eyes shut as tears threatened to escape them. Discord lowered his paw, his features softening into a genuine face of concern as he realized that he'd vocalized an idea the night princess had been trying not to entertain. "... Oh, Luna... how long have you been thinking that?"

"... ever since I remembered the night she sent me away," she whispered.

Discord, for once, was at a loss for words. He only dared to put his paw on her shoulder, and was quite surprised when she turned and nestled her face against the arm. She sniffled, but then straightened herself again. "You wanted to rekindle our friendship, Discord. _This_ is what you are rekindling. Knowing you, you want no part of it, so instead of going further, you may take your leave."

"I think I'll stay, if it's all the same to you. Why don't you tell me about the constellations you've got up there?"

A sideways glance from the moon princess, but she looked back up. "... you know all of them."

"That one's new. What's that one?"

"... thank you, Discord."


End file.
